role of psychiatric genetics in pediatric psychopharmacology

Psychiatric genetics is relevant to psychopharmacology, in many respects. First, it is undebatable current state of knowledge that, genes make youths susceptible to psychiatric disorders. This has been shown for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Depression, Autism, Tourette's Syndrome, Mood Disorders in general, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, Learning Disabilities and Conduct Disorder. In fact, it is fairly certain that the D4 Dopamine receptor gene is a susceptibility gene for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. For Learning Disabilities, there is a consistent finding on Chromosome 6, that a gene that is as of yet unknown is involved in Learning Disabilities. Breakthroughs are being made in Autism, Bipolar Disorders. This is amazing when we consider that 20 to 30 years ago psychiatric disorders were considered to be reactions to environmental events. We have really moved very far beyond that in psychiatric genetics. While genes control many brains systems, these mediate therapeutic response, drug metabolism and side effects. So, the question for the future is "To what degree can psychiatric genetic studies help clarify these points

Wives killing husbands forensic psychiatric aspects of abused women

This paper deals with the legal implications related to the state of mind of the wife involved one condition. This condition is a proven emotional and/or physical abuse of that woman. In the west it is less likely for a wife to kill her husband if they were found with a lover because the legal channels of obtaining a divorce for women in the Western culture are relatively easy. That leaves abuse as probably the most common reason for a Western woman to kill her husband. When the motive of killing is related to issues other than abuse there is little role for forensic psychiatry to play discounting insanity plead. Battered Woman Syndrome involves a woman who has been physically, sexually, or seriously psychologically abused by a man in an intimate relationship in order to coerce her into what he wants her to do. They see the abuser is after them wherever they go. Escaping would only provoke the abuser to inflict more harm. Trauma-induced psychiatric syndromes may be used to support the defense of justification. BWS may be utilized to explain two components of self-defense claims. Those are: 1- the defendant's subjective fear of serious injury or death, 2- the reasonableness of that belief. Judging from what has been published in the lay media many cases of women who killed their husbands were tried. Going through many search engines in Arabic and English has not returned any case as yet which has been defended on the BWS type of defense. What is being proposed in this paper is that Islamic jurisprudence carries no prohibition against making this kind of defense. In fact Islamic jurisprudence is more flexible in accepting this kind of defense than the secular laws. Islamic jurisprudence gives more respect to the integrity of the person. It gives him or her the right to kill in order to protect their property even in the face of nonlethal threats. Islamic jurisprudence is also not so restrictive in the definition of insanity for legal purposes

survey of a child psychiatry clinic in a teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia-clinical profile and cross-cultural comparison

This is an epidemiologic study of 199 children and adolescents who were referred for evaluation to a child psychiatry clinic in a teaching hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during a 6 year period. [I] to clarify who utilizes the services of a child psychiatry clinic. [2] what are the psychological problems that triggers the referral, and [3] compare our results with western literature on similar clinical populations of children and adolescents. All children referred to the child psychiatry clinic were assessed using a semi-structured interview according to the +AP DSM-III system and a modified global assessment of functioning scale provided for the fourth axis of the DSM III. Significant findings which differ from literature reports include: a low representation of conduct disorder [5%], high representations of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [12.6%], mental retardation [20Tc], conversion disorder [8%] and obsessional disorder [4%]. First referred to traditional healers were 46% and there was a low rate [0.6%] of referral from pediatricians compared to 22% in western societies. The results are discussed with emphasis on socio-cultural perspectives

Measurement of plasma tricyclics in a Saudi population

Psychiatrists practicing in the Arab world in general have formed the impression that there is a genetic tendency for Arab people to require less than the recommended dose of tricyclic antidepressant drugs. We have measured plasma levels of tricyclics in 120 patients; the degree of clinical response in relation to diagnosis, drug used, dosage, and plasma tricyclic levels was assessed. Our findings suggest that our patient population is no different from its Western counterpart on the basis of the factors evaluated

Somatic presentation of psychiatric disorders in an outpatient group of Saudis

The phenomenon of somatization in Saudi Arabia is considered in a review of 270 cases records of patients who presented to the hospital during a period of four months. A high rate [56%] of conversion of psychic problems into bodily symptoms was found. Males and females showed an equal tendency to somatize; young, single, student and professional, and patients with an associated chronic physical disease were less likely to somatize than the others. Psychotic patients presented with somatic symptoms less frequently than patients with depressive or anxiety disorders; patients who reported psychosocial stresses as influencing their symptoms showed a greater tendency to somatize